GOVERNOR'S BROTHER URGED TO SEEK OFFICE

But Ed Thompson Differs From Tommy In Experience, Party

Could there be another Thompson in the governor's mansion?

Tommy G. Thompson has been Wisconsin's leader for the past 14 years,
while his younger brother, Ed, has been mayor of Tomah for less than
a year.

But the relative lack of political experience hasn't stopped
Libertarians from asking Ed Thompson to run for governor in 2002.

For the moment, Tomah's mayor is playing coy.

"I think I would be a good candidate," Ed Thompson said in a phone
interview Monday afternoon from the mayor's office. "Right now, I'm
concentrating all my efforts on being mayor."

However, Ed Thompson admitted feeling a bit envious on a recent visit
to his sibling's abode.

"I visited my brother the other night at the mansion. We had a good
talk," he said. "I looked over there and said, 'Man, this wouldn't be
a bad house to live in.' I even sat at the head of the table just to
see what it was like."

Ed Thompson is a colorful character. Owner of a popular tavern and
restaurant in Tomah, he has had a few brushes with the law. When his
Tee Pee Supper Club was raided several years ago and four nickel
poker machines were confiscated, Ed Thompson was the only tavern
owner - among dozens nabbed in the Monroe County raid - who refused
to cut a deal and plead guilty.

He ended up winning his case when the district attorney, who was
later voted out of office over the raid, couldn't find enough
unbiased jurors. The Legislature later changed the law so tavern
owners with no more than five video gambling machines face only
misdemeanor, instead of felony, charges.

Ed Thompson's bucking of what he says is an unfair disparity between
legal forms of gambling in Wisconsin, such as Indian casinos, and
illegal gambling, such as poker machines, prompted some people to
encourage him to run for Tomah mayor last year. He defeated two-term
incumbent Bud Johnson.

Now, Libertarians are trying to persuade him to throw his hat in for
the governor's race in two years, said Ed Thompson, who left the
Republican Party and became a Libertarian after felony gambling
charges were filed against him in the raid.

The state Libertarian Party is looking into what it would take for
Thompson to make a bid for the governor's job, such as a good
campaign manager and lots of money, said Bob Collison, the party's
state chairman.

"Ed brings a lot of pluses. He certainly brings the Thompson name,"
said Collison, adding that Ed Thompson is well-known among members of
the Tavern League of Wisconsin.

"He would have to run a populist campaign pretty much like Jesse
Ventura did in Minnesota," Collison said. "Do I think he could win? I
don't know. Nobody thought Jesse Ventura would win."

One motivation for running, Ed Thompson said, would be the chance to
take on Democratic Attorney General James Doyle, who has announced
that he will run for governor in 2002.

"That would be interesting. I would want to beat him because he's the
one who raided me," Ed Thompson said.

He has discussed the possibility of running for the top job with his
brother, Wisconsin's longest-serving governor, and said Tommy
Thompson "didn't say, 'Don't do it'; he didn't encourage me, either."

Tommy Thompson didn't return a message Monday seeking comment about
the possibility of his brother running for governor.

Ed Thompson's political hero, aside from his brother, is Ventura, a
third-party candidate who defeated Republican and Democratic
candidates two years ago to become Minnesota's governor.

Thompson admits it would be hard to go from his $12,000-per-year
part- time mayor's gig to being Wisconsin's top politician, which
pays $122,000. He figures he'd have to raise at least $1 million to
wage a viable campaign.

"I would be a Jesse Ventura. I sure wouldn't count myself out. I
never got into a fight that I didn't think I could win," said
Thompson, who has written to Ventura in hopes of meeting the former
pro wrestler.

If he were elected governor, Thompson said, he would decriminalize
marijuana and release non-violent inmates from Wisconsin's prisons.

"I think the war on drugs is an abysmal failure. They told us they're
winning that just like they told us they were winning the war in
Vietnam," Thompson said. "We have to look at the laws on marijuana.
Prohibition didn't work in the '20s, and it's not working now."